45 pages • 1-hour read
Fantastic Mr Fox
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Grotesque Fatness
The hyperbolic fatness of Boggis and Bunce symbolizes their greed and gluttony. They gorge themselves on produce from their farms, and as a result, Boggis is “enormously fat,” and Bunce is a “pot-bellied dwarf” (2-3). Their grotesque diets and appearances are characterization tools designed to repulse readers.
It is telling that the two men have thousands of chickens, ducks, and geese—yet still despise Mr. Fox for his minor thefts. Their gluttony in the face of Mr. Fox’s humble goal of keeping his family alive helps characterize the farmers as archetypal “bad guys.”
The Tunnel Network
The tunnel network symbolizes Mr. Fox’s determination and guile. In the face of the farmers’ schemes, Mr. Fox concocts a daring plan: His tunnel network both saves the animals from starvation and establishes a new, safe way of life—with access to “three of the finest stores in the world” (78). Ironically, the farmers’ aggression towards the animals pushes Mr. Fox to devise this plan.
This symbol also speaks to Mr. Fox’s bonds with his children and his friend Badger, as it is their combined efforts that lead to success.
Bean’s Cider Cellar
Bean’s cider cellar is the location of Mr. Fox’s most dangerous heist. It comes to symbolize Mr. Fox’s overreaching ambition, as stealing cider at this point in the story is highly unnecessary. Him breaking into Boggis’s chicken house was a necessity to feed his family—but upon learning the other animals’ predicaments from Badger, he resolves to tunnel into Bunce’s storehouse.
The already constructed tunnels to Boggis’s chicken house (“teeming with chickens”) and Bunce’s storehouse (with “thousands and thousands of the finest and fattest ducks and geese”) provided ample food to feed Mr. Fox’s family and the other animals (40, 52). However, Bean is the cleverest of all the farmers; his cellar is walled in with bricks. Mr. Fox’s determination to break into it illustrates his growing greed and desire to best all three farmers.
Unlock the meaning behind every key symbol & motif
See how recurring imagery, objects, and ideas shape the narrative.
- Explore how the author builds meaning through symbolism
- Understand what symbols & motifs represent in the text
- Connect recurring ideas to themes, characters, and events